The pricing and marketing of fresh produce will remain a key topic of discussion for some time. The rest of the world has already begun to deviate from FPMs in terms of marketing of fresh produce, which includes potatoes. In fact, few countries still make use of FPMs as we know them. Does this imply that the producer is at the mercy of the rest of the food chain? Not necessarily.
Our FPMs operate as a price discovery mechanism and, as such, need to be preserved. The FPMs and the marketing agency model bring us relatively close to the ideal version of a free market. Given that markets lose market share, this remains our “first prize”, but we need to consider the “what ifs”. What if markets continue to lose their market share? What if markets begin to sell fewer than 80 million or 90 million bags per year?
FP Coetzee and Pieter van Zyl, CHIPS magazine (March | April 2021)
For more information on the CHIPS magazine (March | April 2021 edition) article by FP Coetzee and Pieter van Zyl, click here.